I'm looking for a pattern for a sweater with sort of an "optical illusion" pattern to knit for my husband. This one, designed by

Lucy Neatby, has potential though it's too feminine and I don't quite
like the sleeves. Any suggestions?

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I think this sweater is the last one in my backlog of images. Now I'll have to focus on the present. I made this for my niece,
Claire. Now Ella wears it but it's almost too small. I don't think I used any particular pattern, just basic measurements.

Most of the color changes are just the Kureyon yarn, though I did do a little bit of striping and checkerboarding and stuff. The
ribbing is in moss stitch, which I always think is so pretty. If I had the patience, I'd do a whole sweater that way, but it's way too
slow for me!

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Here is the pattern for the fabulous bulky baby sweater. Everyone loves this sweater... I've probably made 10 of them, some for
gifts, some for my girls. It's easy to make even bigger -- just find a sweater that fits your kid and go from there. Make the sleeves a
little long and roll 'em up. The assymetrical one also looks great with one big button. You can also stripe it easily either by
knitting two rows in one color, then two rows in a second color or, for more complex 3 color striping: work stripes of 4 rows, then 3
rows, then 2 rows, then 1 row, then repeat. Always use the yarn left on the side you're ready to knit. I've used just about every kind
of yarn for this Lion Brand Homespun, Colinette Fandango, Kitchen Cotton... if you want baby to actually be able to wear it, use
something washable!

Someone, somewhere, deserves credit for this pattern, but I have no idea who. I just have a tattered xerox and I know it's been
around since the 70's.

This sweater isn't done in garter stitch and I have no idea how many stitches I used, but it follows the basic idea of this sweater.

Check the comments for the directions for the bibbed and cardigan versions of the sweater!

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Okay, so I have actually knit something new for Ella (born 01-01-01). It turned out so big, though, that she won't really be
wearing it until next year at least. It's made of a muted colorful gray Fandango with my classic,
so-much-hipper-than-the-5-hour-baby-sweater pattern from a 70's pattern my aunt gave me.

More fimo buttons!

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Here's a sweater I knit for Zoe maybe in 1999/2000. She can still wear it, and I still love it. I used "The Incredible, Custom-Fit
Raglan Sweater" pattern by Pam Costello, available at

woolworks.org for this one too, though I knit back and forth for the
cardigan. I used 1 skein of Noro Kureyon for the yoke, then some cheap cotton for the rest of it. I added the button bands after it was
done and five mis-matching buttons.

Of course, there's a matching hat!

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This sweater started, untypically, pattern first. The garter stitch jacket from Simply Beautiful Sweaters. Maybe that's
been it's problem. I'm very ambivalent about it right now. I thought it was going to be so wonderful and right now I think the yarns
aren't shown to their full advantage, and that it may end up too small, and maybe I should rip it out, even though I'm 75% done and knit
on bigger needles to show a little more yarn and make it a little bigger... I had assumed that since it was called a "jacket" it would
have plenty of ease in it, but it's pretty small. Should have paid more attention to the measurements.

Anyway, then I scouted ebay for some Colinette Fandango I liked. I love this yarn! Absolutely one of my favorites. Ended up finding
some in Green Parrot -- it's as subtle as it sounds. Then all I needed was some co-ordinating Zanziba. There was no co-ordinating
Zanziba! I bought some on ebay that I thought would work, but it was too gray/teal for the screaming green parrot. I called the ladies
at Tricoter, who wrote the book (literally!) and told them I couldn't find any Zanz I liked... I wasn't even sure if I liked Zanz
at all, was there anything else I could use? (How desperate is this?) She told me that you really needed the shininess of Zanziba to
"make" the sweater. So I looked some more. Then one day I popped into my local yarn store -- always dangerous -- and discovered some
GGH Trikolore in bright colors. On sale, even! It co-ordinates pretty well.

So I was off and knitting and it was going nice and quick -- 2 1/2 stitches to the inch and soft and fun... Anyway, got the back and
the fronts done and then started to feel ambivalent. I think what I really need to do is get to the yarn store and see if they have one
more Trikolore as I am afraid I'm going to run out and be unable to finish the sleeves as long as I need them. Then I can decide whether
I need to rip everything out and reknit it a tiny bit bigger or whether I can just block it a little bigger.

Oh yeah,.. In my fimo fest, I did make the buttons for the sweater already. Here they are:

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I stumbled across the Dishcloth Exchange Webpage the other day and I realized
that there was a whole knitting subculture devoted to washcloths and facecloths... and I had never even tried to make one!

So I decided to make a soap sack for my friend who's a soap maker. Essentially, I made a square with some eyelets about an inch and a
half down from the top and sort of a wavy pattern on it out of dishcloth cotton, then folded it in half and sewed across the bottom and
up the side. Then I made a crocheted drawstring to close it up.

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After reading about and seeing some cool needles out there, I thought, "Hey, I could make some needles..." I figured I'd use dowels
sanded down and some beads on the end. Then, serendipitously I went to the library and stumbled across Kids Knitting by
Melanie Falick (Artisan Press, 1998). In it, she describes much the same process that HREF="http://megan.scatterbrain.org/notmartha/">not martha links to. It's so easy! Done in under an hour. I'm going to do this as
a project with my knitting group this week.

First you chop the dowels to size -- I made them about 12" as the dowels were 3 feet long. I bought two sizes of dowels -- some
approximately 5mm (size 8's) and some about 6mm (size 10's). Then sharpen them in the pencil sharpener until they're like dull pencils.
After that, a bit of sanding with fine grit sandpaper.

To make the tops, I made little beads with fimo. (I was having such fun with the fimo, that I ended up making some buttons too. I'll
get them up here eventually.) I gently poked the sticks into the beads and baked them for 20 minutes or so. After the baking, I let them
cool a bit, slipped the beads off and applied some lemon oil to the needles. Then I superglued the beads on. Voila! I think I'll try
to make some little heads for my next set.

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This is a sweater I made for my four year-old, Zoe, recently. It's made out of Noro's cotton/cashmere Iroha. Really soft, but still
sturdy. Of course, she won't wear it and now it's getting too warm anyway. Good thing I made it big enough for next year. (Note
substantial cuffs... I ran out of yarn, but wanted to make sure it was big enough for another year!).

I used "The Incredible, Custom-Fit Raglan Sweater" pattern by Pam Costello, available at

woolworks.org. This is a great pattern for a basic top-down raglan in ANY
size. It's totally flexible. Getting started is tricky, but after that, totally simple. Because it's in the round there are no seams
either, so it's very tidy. (I actually worked back and forth on my sleeves, because I don't have a little circular needle... maybe I
should get one.)

I made it a V-neck originally, but after I put a good two inches of ribbing on it, the neck looked small and funny, so I added the
johnny-collar. It definitely works better.

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Technicolor Dream Sweater

On a complete impulse I bought a mixed lot of yarn on ebay. Bright

pink isn't usually my thing, but it appealed to me so I snatched it

up (paid about $35 with shipping). It contained:

2 balls NORO Kureyon 11, Fuchsia mix, 1 ball NORO Kureyon 106,

Rose/orange mix, 1 ball HORSTIA Mulberry Silk/Merino, Dark rose, 1

ball ROWAN Linen Drape, Fuchsia, 1 ball SCHACHENMAYR Mirage,

Rose/fuchsia, 1 ball SCHACHENMAYR Mirage, Dark orange. The seller

(duena) threw in a picture for a cool striped pink sweater, that

served as a locus for inspiration and improvisation.

Then I went to my local yarn store and bought: 3 skeins CASCADE

Pastaza in Maroon and 1 skein TRENDSETTER Eyelash in maroon too.

US needles size 6 for 4/inch gauge.

I used the White Lies Shapely Tank Pattern (a free pattern

available at

HREF="http://www.whiteliesdesigns.com/patterns/lpullovers/fbcprint.html">http://www.whiteliesdesigns.com/patterns/lpullovers/fbcprint.html)

as a starting point, though made some changes. First, my gauge was 4

stitches/inch, so I modified it that way. Also, I wanted it to be

longer (hip length, or 24") and didn't use the short row shaping at

the bottom. Also, I wanted 3/4 sleeves, so I used the short sleeve

pattern for the WLST, but made some changes there too. I made them

longer (obviously), but also a bit narrower as the sweater is quite

fitted.

My thoughts on making this sweater: I really liked the Pastaza, it

was very pleasant to knit. And I always like Noro yarns. The Mirage

was a little tricky to work with as you can't see your stitches at

all through the fuzz. And I *hated* the Eyelash! I thought it would

be fun, but it was hard to keep untangled and it took forever to make

sure that the eyelashes were hanging on the right side of the sweater

and not all bunched up in the following stitches. Those few rows took

forever. I would have used more, but I hated it too much.

I knit the body in the round which was nice and quick and made the

stripes go smoothly all the way around. However, I didn't really

think about the sleeves as I was knitting the body and consequently

was constantly snipping and weaving in ends when it came to the

sleeves! Also, since I was using the space dyed Noro, I had to be

careful to get the colors matched up. I used the two balls of Kureyon

11 for the sleeves, I was wise enough to realize that that was the

way to go ahead of time?
â I also ended up cutting out some colors here

and there because I didn't like them as they were too dark or too

discordant (e.g. some black/pink and some dark green).

My other major feat was matching up the stripes from the bodice to

the sleeves. It took a fair amount of staring at the body and

thinking to realize that I should match the pattern from the

beginning of the sleeve cap to the bottom of the armhole and work

forward and backward from there. That yielded good matching of the

stripes (of course the Noro colors are different on the sleeves and

body, but that couldn't be helped). What I did for the sleeves was to

knit the bottom 6 inches to match the bottom of the body, then

matched the top 9 inches to the top of the body counting from just

before the beginning of the armhole. Then I left the middle 3 inches

in the Pastaza with one pink stripe.

I am very pleased with the results!

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